Romeo and Juliet
This page is for plot, character descriptions, and great lines from the play Romeo and Juliet. What Happens in the Play Lots of sad things. 'Quotes from the Students' “… The only reason I thought that is not a book of Stephanie Meyer is the “cholar” pun in the beginning.”– Taylan Turan “In my opinion, the whole thing is about sexual thoughts about two teenagers. I don't believe that it is the most romantic love story ever written in the history of mankind.” – ''Gönenç Gülbaz' “Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular and most frequently performed plays of Shakespeare. It was written about four hundred years ago and although centuries old, it is still prevalent and it is still the most known love story in the history because it has a strong and common topic, interesting background, powerful characters and effective language.” –''Gökçem Gökmen' “Juliet is hot...”''– Melik Alper Polat' 'A'''nalysis ''by Sevgi Ezgican Şakar' I fear too early, for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revels, and expire the term Of a despiséd life closed in my breast By some veil forfeit of untimely death. '' ''But he that hath the steerage of my course Direct my sail… (49, 1.4.113-8) These lines above are from Romeo’s speech for Mercutio and Benvolio. Mercutio asks Romeo to go to the party in Capulet’s house, but Romeo is acting reluctant about it. He is (for now) in love with Rosaline, who is from the house of Capulet and did not love him back. Because Rosaline rejected Romeo’s love, Romeo feels uncomfortable about the party in Capulet’s house, and he thinks that his fate was not written in a good way. These lines are actually important, because it is actually a foreshadowing for Romeo meeting his bad-written fate and his star-crossed lover Juliet: The idea of fatality and the star-crossed lovers with the fortune that is blocking their happiness, the two important bases for the whole story of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. “… They stumble that run fast.” (91, 2.4.101) Friar Lawrence is probably the deepest and the most essential character of the play Romeo and Juliet. He is a wise man with philosophical bases and interests. In the quote above, he advises Romeo literally to “slow down”: Romeo suddenly fell in love with Juliet, and forgot about Rosaline like it never actually happened. He proposed Juliet to marry in the night that they met. Because of the sudden, irrational and childish desires of Romeo, Friar Lawrence takes the responsibility of him. The quote can also be a foreshadowing for the death of Romeo and Juliet, and also sketches the picture of a tragic hero: Romeo has over-emotionality and impatience as weak spot, and he is a noble; so if he rushes for marrying Juliet because of his overwhelming teenage love, he would “fall down” faster than he would. “… A plague o’ both of your houses! / They have made worms’ meat of me.” (123, 3.1.111-2) Here, Mercutio curses both Capulets and Montagues, because he dies because of the fight between these two households. Tybalt wants to give Romeo a lesson, for getting into the party in Capulet’s house, but Romeo does not want to fight because he is now married to Juliet. Mercutio tries to reconcile them, but Tybalt stabs Mercutio, who holds the role of Athena, the Greek goddess of justice, but he fails to break the fight up: he himself dies because of the hatred of Capulets (Tybalt) and Montagues (Romeo). Before he dies, he curses both of them with a “plague”, which can also be a foreshadowing for the death of Romeo and Juliet. Despised, distresséd, hated, martyred, killed! Uncomfortable time, why cam’st thou now To murder, murder our solemnity? O child! O child! My soul and not my child! Dead art thou! Alack, my child is dead, And with my child my joys are buriéd. (203, 4.5.65-71) Lord Capulet sounds very sad because of his daughter Juliet’s death; but is it really because of the death of Juliet, or is it because of the “death” of his prestige? “Solemnity” and “joy” are the keywords to solve the riddle. Juliet is “dead”, but Lord Capulet whimpers about the wedding, because he hoped to get more dignity and gain more respect from people with the marriage of Juliet with Paris (Prince’s kinsman). In the time Shakespeare wrote, women were “owned” by men, they did not have the right to decide what they would do. Here, Lord Capulet seems pretty angry, because his daughter Juliet suddenly died. Death is not a thing that a person would choose to do as a normal thing, but still Lord Capulet blames Juliet for being dead in an “uncomfortable time”. 'Characters' 'Romeo' Romeo is a dude. Status Update Just got back from Juliet's balcony! Best night EVER! (2.2) 'About Me' PlEaSe, KeEp aLl tHoSe sUnBeAmS AwAy fRoM My eYeS! l๏שє เร tђє ๓ครtєг кєא ฬђเςђ ๏קєภร tђє ﻮคtєร ๏Ŧ ђคקקเภєรร ѕσмєтιмєѕ ι ¢ℓσѕє му єуєѕ яєαℓ нαя∂ αη∂ ωιѕн тнαт уσυ'∂ вє мιηє... ι тнιηк ι ¢συℓ∂ ƒαℓℓ мα∂ℓу ιη вє∂ ωιтн уσυ ∂ι∂ ιт нυят ωнєη уσυ ƒαℓℓ συт σƒ нєανєη thumb|300px|right ιƒ ѕнє ¢яιєѕ, нєя тєαяѕ ωιℓℓ тυяη тσ ¢яуѕтαℓѕ... αяєη'т уσυ тιяє∂؟ уσυ'яє ωαℓкιηg ƒσя нσυяѕ ιη му мιη∂ If lOvInG YoU Is wRoNg, I DoN'T WaNnA Be rIgHt !!!!!!!!!!! ι'∂ яαтнєя вℓєє∂ ωιтн ¢υтѕ σƒ ℓσνє тнєη ℓινє ωιтнσυт αηу ѕ¢αяѕ тнє ραιη σƒ ℓσνє ιѕ тнє ραιη σƒ вєιηg αℓινє. ıт'ѕ α ρєяρєтυαℓ ωσυη∂ k!11 m3 n0w. y0u kn0w y0u w4n7 70...!7'5 n07 1!k3 ! w4n7 70 1!v3 4nyw4y! א๏ย ςคภ't кเll ๓є...เ'๓ คlгєค๔א ๔єค๔ ωну ∂σ вα∂ тнιηgѕ αℓωαуѕ нαρρєη тσ gσσ∂ ρєσρℓє؟ !!!тнє нιgнєя уσυ αяє, тнє ƒαятнєя уσυ ƒαℓℓ!!! 'Home Town' Verona ''' '''Family Background Father: Lord Montague Mother: Lady Montague Cousin: Benvolio 'Relationship Status ' married with Juliet P'olitical Views' Pacifism 'Activities ' Being depressed, oling up, entering my enemy's house slyly, anging out with Herbalist friar alking about my manhood with my friends who are as adolescent as me 'Interests' Love, sex, Juliet thumb|300px|rightF'avorites' Musician/Band: My Chemical Romance Song: Demolition Lovers Movie: Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotlessmind Character: Jack Skellington TV Show: Emo-Ville Book: Twilight Quotation: “Hasn’t anyone ever told you? Life isn’t fair.”-[http://www.twilight-quotes.com/characters/swan-bella Bella Swan], [http://www.twilight-quotes.com/books/twilight Twilight], Chapter 2, p.49 Analysis by Duygu Erbil Understanding Adolescence The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, identifies adolescence as a period of emotional upheaval, inconsistent behavior, and vulnerability to deviant and criminal activity caused by psychosexual conflicts. This proves how Freudian Shakespeare was before the world meets Freud. By his best known play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare represents all the conflicts of the adolescents. He began with choosing two teenagers fall in love in a dense climate of hate and their story became the love story of the world. Everybody knows the names Romeo and Juliet ''by heart because their names became synonymous to love but if they weren’t at the age of sixteen and thirteen, their love wouldn’t be in the way it is. Their ages are the beginning of the adolescence for boys and girls and both of them has their own sexual characteristics: Juliet is more mature and Romeo is more passionate. Romeo is hot-blooded but on the other hand, he is a peaceful character and this causes a self vs. self conflict. It can be said that Romeo, with his hormone-charged world and peaceful inner world, his adolescent conflicts as self vs. society and self vs. destiny makes ''Romeo and Juliet . As the basic characteristic of adolescence, rebellion with foolhardiness is one of the most outstanding traits of Romeo and it ignites the conflicts. Romeo and Juliet are the children of enemies, so they have to hate each other. But they rise against their families, the society which sees them apart, the fate which wrote their names and love each other. Romeo’s passion about Juliet can be seen in the lines: “Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized. / Henceforth I never will be Romeo”(Shakespeare, 2.2). By these lines, Romeo refuses his name, his family and his destiny for Juliet’s love and this shows the quality of his passion. This can represent the adolescence effect on the story’s destiny because if Romeo was thirty years old in spite of sixteen, there wouldn’t be the hormonal hurricanes that much or it would be called as silliness. Since temerity is an inevitable return of adolescence, Romeo’s passion becomes likely. “Romeo” can be count as a word play that designates the word ‘romantic’, so it is awaited that Romeo is a romantic character. The first time the reader meets him in act I, scene I, he is represented as an overdramatic and platonic lover with a poetic language and all of these can be seen in the line “Under love’s heavy burden do I sink”(Shakespeare, 1.4). By this line, it can be said that Romeo exaggerates love and call it a “heavy burden”. Even he was under Rosaline’s “love’s burden”, he could easily switch from her to Juliet and have asked “Did my heart love till now?” (Shakespeare, 1.5). His instability which is understood from these lines can be easily based on his age and hormones. In addition, there is the line by Juliet, “You kiss by th’ book” which attracts attention to Romeo’s ‘love’ understanding which is so poetic and pyrotechnic. This overdramatic characteristic of him can be leaned again to his age because he is only sixteen and he experienced love only by books, the books with their aesthetic worries exaggerate the emotions, so Romeo does the same: He kills himself because someone said that Juliet is dead, so his exaggeration also reflects his decisions and makes them spontaneous. His spontaneities accounts for also his unstableness and rashness. Romeo’s rash and runny character may make the reader get sick and think that he is a cursory character. On the other hand, it is seen that he is a pacifist character who tries to provide reconciliation. This can be seen in the scene where Juliet’s cousin Tybalt wants to fight and Romeo rejects the fight with the sentences “Villain am I none. / Therefore farewell” (Shakespeare, 3.1). These lines show that Romeo chooses peace instead of his manhood because as it is seen in the beginning of the play, belligerency is identical with manhood. Romeo’s peaceful character is also understood from his familiarity with Friar Lawrence who is a priest. This peacefulness makes Romeo more than an adolescent and show that he is not only an overdramatic little lover but also a man who can make appropriate decisions. The fact that he can act maturely exalts his temerity because of his love. There comes Romeo’s self vs. self conflict as a result of his opposite characteristics: peacefulness and rashness. If these characteristics were looked one by one, there could be seen Benvolio( Bene- means good, so his name is a reference to goodness) and Mercutio(comes from Mercury and states rashness) who are Romeo’s closest connections. In other words, Mercutio and Benvolio can be showed as his opposite parts, his black and white. Romeo has both Benvolio and Mercutio inside, so he is a friend of both but how Benvolio and Mercutio, two opposite characters can be friends? It is because Romeo puts them together because these two people’s only common thing is that they both think Romeo’s love is silly. On the other hand, these two characteristics, rashness and peacefulness, are kept together inside Romeo who is a symbol of love. = = = Juliet Juliet is a lady. Status Update Said good night to Romeo (for, like, a THOUSAND times!) (2.2) About Me Here is some information about me. 'Family Background' Juliet is a maiden of the respected house of Capulet. 'Favorites' Here are some of my favorite things: Analysis by... Juliet is... = = Mercutio Status Update About Me Family Background Favorites Analysis by... Friar Lawrence = Romeo and Juliet in Popular Culture by Barış Çelik and Caner Üretmen http://shakespeareattevitol.wikia.com/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet_in_Popular_Culture Category:Romeo and Juliet Category:Romeo & Juliet